Answering The Call...

James Burbidge introduces the international competition making the trip over the channel this weekend.

Tour 1 became ‘London Calling’ in 2010 when 7 international teams were first invited over to compete in the British event. This year 11 teams are crossing water to play against Europe’s champions, the top-level British teams, and each other in preparation for 3 years of fierce competition. We got in touch with TD (and CEO of UKU) Si Hill and some of the visiting teams to find out what goes into putting on this unique tournament, and what attracts Europe’s top teams to it.

With a massive 96 teams attending this year, Si’s chief worry isn’t the schedule, or seeding the new teams, no - “it’s the carpark. With the recent rain we’re worried about the car park field getting muddy, and we need people to get in and parked efficiently.  We don’t want any delays at the entrance because we’re only a few hundred metres from the M25.”

Tour 1 always brings a frisson of excitement to a familiar British tour scene as unfamiliar teams are inserted into the top 16. For Si, this disruption is kind of the point: “For A-tour teams, and our top women’s teams, having strong European squads over brings everyone’s level up. The stronger we make the competition, and the more we play unfamiliar teams, the better everyone gets. That’s the goal.”

 Phil Johnson wraps around for the bid. Photo Courtesy of Graham Bailey.

London Calling - Women's Preview

Charlie Blair introduces the teams who will be starting up the Women's club season this weekend...

Can you believe it? Here beckons the start of June. The summer has arrived! The season is about to begin! And boy, what a difference a year makes!  London Calling 2014 delivers yet again with another great turn out in the women’s Tour with 24 teams signed up and raring to go. Most exciting however, is that this year promises more depth than ever as preparation for World clubs has strengthened the level of competition ready to descend on St Albans this weekend. Whilst some have complained that Tour maintains a sense of predictability ten years in, the battle amongst the top 8 and the top 12 is finally feeling like a more competitive affair.

There really is no telling just how much the seedings will be turned over in any of these brackets. It would be safe to assume that the three teams contending at world clubs will be found at the summit of Tour. However, in terms of who will take the title, it does seem somewhat likely that Iceni will rule the roost once again.

In preparation for Worlds, Iceni have had a marked overhaul under the leadership of Sonia Komenda and Ange Wilkinson, in recognition of the serious demands required in order to challenge top teams in Italy. They go into Tour 1 extremely well prepared, with months of bi-weekly trainings and professional fitness instruction under the guidance of former Clapham player Paul 'Voodoo' Waite who has committed his season to them. Nevertheless, in having not attended the inaugural NFL (Not Fog Lane) a couple of weeks ago, Tour will be their first demonstration of their hard work. With the introduction of a new  ‘north American’ style structure and the complete scrap of vertical stack from their offensive repertoire, will it all come together in time or will others be able to take advantage of their somewhat inexperienced tactics?

London Calling - Open Preview

The club season is upon us! James Burbidge takes a look at the competition heading to the open division this weekend.

Returning to St Albans, Tour 1, this year's London Calling sees over 70 teams entered into the open division with 10 coming from overseas.

At the top of the pack, four teams will hope to prove themselves the best of the best in Europe: Clapham, Chevron Action Flash, Bad Skid and Flying Angels Bern. London Calling will doubtless provide top competition for these teams as they prepare for the big one: the World Club Championships in August.

Reigning National and European champions Clapham have split their team into two like last year (an O-line and a D-line), and are using the competition as the final part of a long and heated selection process. Captain Marc 'Britney' Guilbert returns to lead a club firmly focused on a peak in Lecco and will be hoping that his teams can meet in the final this year, rather than the semi. With no major player movement out, and more top recruits coming in – notably Ollie Gordon from Chevron, Matt Parslow and James Baron from Fire – they may find that the toughest competition is also the most familiar.

Photo courtesy of Graham Bailey.

Mixed Tour 3 Review: Bears Complete Clean Sweep in Windswept Cheltenham

By Matt Dathan

Bear Cavalry completed a clean sweep of mixed tours as the mixed season came to a close in a windswept Cheltenham.

The Bears joined Manchester City and Conchita Wurst to make it a weekend of favourites prevailing over inferior opposition. The comparisons end there, unfortunately, as facial hair was sparse among the Bears girls, as well as among the ‘men’ and they weren’t reliant on a host of foreign stars either.

Not only have they now won all three of this season’s mixed tours, they have also remained unbeaten throughout and have never been seriously threatened.

Cambridge put up a good fight in the final however, scoring four points in a row in the second half, but the damage had already been done.

Bears took an early lead, punching in an upwind offence point right at the beginning and following it up with a downwind break to take a 2-0 head start. It was quite literally an uphill battle from then onwards for Cambridge, who were unable to use their punting skills in the high winds and did well to finish off with just a five point deficit at 17-12.

Adam Crouch takes off for the grab. Photo courtesy of Andrew Moss

Mixed Tour 3 Preview:

Can Bear Cav remain undefeated through the Mixed Tour?

Smatt: I see no reason why they can’t. Cambridge and Brighton finished 2^nd and 3^rd behind them at Mixed Tour 2, and they beat them twice over the weekend. Cambridge will once again provide the toughest matchup. They should find moving the disc easier without the Nottingham wind to slow down their possession based 3-4 underneath cutting strategy. However they also found it tough to contain the Bear Cav hucking game at MT1 without wind and MT2 with the wind.

Matt: Yes of course they can, but that would be boring. So I’m going to predict Cambridge to beat Bears in a pulsating final, which will tear onlookers from the grasp of their mobiles as they check last-day Premier League scores. The fields of Cheltenham will be scattered with shrapnel of nails as the nerve-racking final moments of the football season and Mixed Tour come to an end simultaneously.

Who will make the biggest climb at MT3?

Smatt: If Bristol Mixed get back all their top players, I think they can regain most if not all of the 8 places they dropped at MT2. Despite the impressive work Cambridge 2 have done so far (improving 13 places over the two tours) I don’t see them breaking the top 12.

Therefore I think the highest climbers will be Bristol Mixed breaking back into the top 8, or Birmingham breaking into the top 16, though, after two tours there shouldn’t as much movement as team rankings should have pretty much sorted themselves out by now.

Matt: Beast Mode – they’re massively under-seeded, smashed everyone at MT1

but didn’t play MT2 so got shafted again. Expect them to be making the seeders look silly by the end of the weekend.

Who will finish in the top 8/4?

Smatt: Top 4: Bear Cav, Black Eagles, Brighton, Cambridge

Top 8: Bear Cav, Black Eagles, Brighton, Cambridge, Herd, RGS, Meeples, Bristol

Matt: I’m going to be bold and predict all three World’s teams will finish in the top four (and yes, that includes RGS, who slipped out of the top eight at Tour 2. They’ll come together in Cheltenham and will start to gel as a team and what I saw of the Ka-pow players at Tom’s Tourney, they look set to impress in Chelters.

Best game of pool play?

Smatt: My games to watch in the top 4 pools are:

Brighton Breezy v Black Eagles – this could be an exciting game full of big throws and athletic plays from both teams. Herd 1 v Meeples – A rematch of the heated quarter final from MT2 that brought Meeples their first top 4 finish ever and dashed the Herd’s chance at a second finals appearance of 2014. Dyn-O-Mixed v Pingu Jam – PJ are on the rise and should be full of confidence after an undefeated MT2 and will face a similarly constructed team in Dyn-O-Mixed. RGS v Bristol – RGS have to be winning this group to gain some momentum into their top 8 crossover, and ultimately towards the rest of their preparations for Worlds, but if Bristol have their strongest set of players then they are a potential top 4 team.

Matt: Looking down the list, the only one that stuck out to me was Bears v Eagles because it got me wondering: who would actually win in a battle between those two creatures?

Upset predictions?

Smatt: Whilst the smart money is on a Bear Cav v Cambridge final again, a Cambridge v Brighton Breezy has potential for a big upset. Another game with upset potential is the Dyn-O-Mixed crossover up into the top 12. In any cross up matchup they should feel they have a decent shot, even more so if they get Peeps or Scarecrew.

Matt: My upset prediction will be RGS to be playing in the 3/4 bracket come Sunday afternoon. I expect Dyn-O-Mixed to finish the mixed season strong and grab a top 8 finish. Rumours are circling that the mighty James Hobley will be making a shock comeback and make his debut this weekend – a remarkable turnaround after being told he should never throw a Frisbee in anger ever again after his antics at Glastonbury last autumn. Bristol Mixed will be back up challenging for a top place too after an under-strength team in Nottingham.

Which team will do the best karaoke after the Eurovision party?

Smatt: Hard to narrow it down with so many teams going, but I’m going to have to go for Scarecrew as they practice singing before every game.

Matt: Dyn-o-mixed, hands-down. I had the pleasure of sharing a room (not a

bed) with Maddox last week and if he can sing in real life as well ashe sings in his sleep, they’ll blow their competition away. And then they also have James Hobbley, who plays the violin in the orchestra every Sunday, so he’ll have an advantage over most at MT3. So the real
question is: who’ll come second? And for that, I have no idea.

Can Meeples stay in the top 4?

Smatt: Based on the players they have, they definitely can, but I don’t think they will. I think their likely quarter finals matchup will be either Black Eagles or Brighton Breezy, and I don’t see Meeples coming out on top in either game, though they would both be fantastic quarter final matchups.

Matt: I don’t know why people are surprised at the rise of Meeples and their top 4 finish in Nottingham. Maybe they’re just very good at playing in god-awful weather and with a heat wave predicted in Cheltenham, they’ll have to adopt an alternative style of play. But they have some star players returning to the team this weekend and I fully expect them to be challenging for top four. I expect Bristol mixed to challenge for top four too as they won’t struggle for top players wanting to make the short journey up the M5.